Radical Disciples – A Remnant Revolution

As I listen more and more in regard to what is being passed off to the Body of Christ today as Gospel truth, I hear and sense a great depth of immaturity. This immaturity leads its listeners in the prison of shallow precepts according to men’s opinionated understanding of Gods Holy Word.

Now for the record I am not talking about immaturity based on physical age, I am referencing the maturity in Christ.

A couple of months ago, Holy Ghost really hit me when I read this quote, “When we balance the energy of youth with the experience of age, we will be most effective.” It happened while I was reading a devotional reading through Proverbs, and specifically this verse.

The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair. (Proverbs 20:29)

Yet in much of the Church today a fast growing trend we find that we have a younger generations who believes in part that the older generation had its chance and now its time to move aside as “they” have received a “new” revelation from God. I speak of this not as one on the outside looking in rather as one who once was trapped in the same way of thinking. I praise God the Father for bringing correcting into my life in this regard via Holy Ghost speaking to me both in the Word and through Godly men.

The problem with this trend of thinking is that it is deeply rooted in the standards of the world and not the Word of God. We can see how the cultural thinking of the world has swiftly been swept into the Body and passed of as being from God. But I can assure you of this, any revelation that is not directly rooted in the Word of God is error and not of the Lord. For His revelations testify of His authority and can be found in His Word. The world says we must replace the old with the new as what is being revealed today is on the cutting edge. Again I can assure you that if these new revelations do not line up with the Bible and found to be firmly rooted in the Word, they shall and do lack the power of God to render the listeners as spiritually, Kingdom of God liberated people.

The Church does not need a new revelation or a new Gospel message, the Church needs to go back to the firm foundation of the Gospel message Jesus & His disciples taught. We need a Holy Ghost cleansing of all this cultural gibberish and we need His Holy Ghost wind and fire to blow these philosophies of the world out the door.

I’ve heard it said that every great move of God as well as the next great move of God started and will start with the youth.

Really?

Can you show me this in the world of God? What is the Fathers opinion in regard to this thought process? Because I am not seeking mans thoughts on this subject, I am talking about this subject of revival, reformations and spiritual awakenings of which He has laid out in His Word for all of us to read.

Is it not a truth that when we have meetings built upon and based on the opinions of men, vacant of the Word and totally void of sound Biblical wisdom and we dare to call it a Christian meeting, we are in danger of seeing souls lost and Hell’s advancement in the lives of the listeners? We must, in all cases allow the gift of discernment to be fully functioning, for the enemy is slick at allowing a few scriptures in yet they are twisted to the opinions of man.

How mans opinions have destroyed many lives, even nations. We must realize that our opinions need to be twisted and shredded till they conform to the opinion of God the Father. We must put on the Mind of Christ in all matters.

We must understand that God will never purpose a matter that goes against His wisdom found in His Word. Nor will He set aside what He has already said on matter and back track and turn in a different direction.

Over the past few generations we have witnessed this worldly mind set change the landscape of our society and nation as a whole. Out of selfish ideas and lack of respect for our seniors, we have tucked them away along with the wise insight they have in the name of progress only to see a nation loose its identity as on Nation under God founded on Biblical (Kingdom) precepts. In the market place we have suffered greatly, in the schools we have suffered greatly and most of all in the Church we have suffered the greatest loss, for rarely will we find true fathers & mothers in the faith activated and serving in the Church.

I’ve listened to many people state that they believe the revival to ring in the next great age of planet earth will involve the coming together of the passionate young people of the next generation and the brave, receptive, wise older people who will embrace what the Spirit is doing, yet be found setting on the sidelines. Now I will agree that when we see the passion of the young combined with the wisdom of the old to produce a wineskin that will receive and contain the new wine of God’s great end time outpouring is some. I believe that we can see clearly see in the scriptures with a solid Biblical foundation

Now there are cynical critics who, not taking in to consideration the power of Gods transforming Word and Spirit, actually believe and confess that people who have passed a certain age often become hardened in the religious form of a revival of the past. They will tell you that the older people become attached to what happened in the past instead of embracing what God is doing now. That the young have not yet experienced what they saw years ago and are not impressed by their ancient revivals (Guess we need to erase Rev 12:11 out of the Bible).

Such talk has birthed a movement of young people, who like the “ Occupy wall street movement group” are seeking present expressions of God that are real to them and they desire to do it according to their way taking not into the consideration of the things that led up to the Lord’s outpouring. They are passionate for God in their own unique and liberating way and seek present expressions of God that are meaningful to them, thus adopting many cultural trends of the world today and they will rebel against anything from the older days claiming them as being “outdated”.

We must understand, God is seeking older believers who will let the Holy Spirit move in their lives apart from the religious boundaries they have created. They have wisdom that comes from age but they may have allowed their passion for God and His life to wane. The older ones must not forsake the wisdom that God has produced in their lives but they must allow Him to rekindle their passion for His presence.

At the same time the Holy Spirit is seeking young people who are passionate for God and also able to receive the wisdom offered by their older brothers and sisters. God wants spiritual mothers and fathers to come along side of the young spiritual children of the next generation. Young people must respect those who have gone before them and open up to what they have to offer, and the older saints must respect and open to the spiritual passion of the young.

Scripture bears this out. God used the older saints to announce the coming of the Messiah. Simeon was there by the Spirit when the parents of Jesus brought Him to the temple. He announced that this baby was indeed the Christ (Luke 2:25f.). He was an old man declaring revelation from God to young people of the next generation. Likewise, Anna, an elderly woman, bore witness of the Christ (Luke 2:36f.). In essence, Simeon and Anna were passing on to the next generation the revelatory wisdom of the older generation.

Unfortunately, in today’s programmed Churchianity we tend to divide the church by age. The younger ones are sent to their own place to worship in their unbridled passion and the older ones go off somewhere else to worship in their way. How much better it would be for the generations to mingle and share what they have and submit to one another.

Paul tells us to “Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another” (Rom. 12:10, KJV). I don’t believe that Paul would have made a differentiation between the young and the old. Neither should we. Regardless of our age we should honorably prefer one another. The young and the old should both honor those of a different age.

I know that many church leaders disagree with this; they see it with the belief that since the young people are the main thrust of the coming revival that they should be favored in all aspects of activity and the older ones should submit all that they prefer to the younger ones. I have been in worship times where the music was set to the decibel level and style of the youth to the extent that older people were hiding behind the pews covering their ears.

Our leaders must be must be aware as to exactly how tragic it is when:

A. The church ignores the needs of the young and functions completely according to the desires of the older believers.

B.. The church ignores the needs of the older ones for the sake of the young.

We can clearly read in the Word of how Paul admonished the churches when they are gathered to “Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor. 14:26). In the gathering of the saints of all ages each person should be seeking to build up all of those who are there. “All things” in the gathering are to be for that purpose.

It comes down to seeing Spirit birthed and Spirit drawn unity in the Body and only in this way can the old benefit from the passion of the young and the young benefit from the wisdom of the old.

This is very important; if we continue to divide up according to age and ignore one another we will hinder the move of the Holy Spirit. In so doing we cater to the world’s way of emphasizing the youth while disparaging the old.

But I can tell you this truth; there is absolutely no need for a New Gospel Model. If we are of the opinion that the gospel message of Jesus and the disciples that is found in the Word is outdated then we need to fall on our knees in repentance and ask God to forgive us for devaluing His Word and ask Holy Spirit to transform our minds till we are of the opinion of God according to His Word.

Now, if all age groups can not worship, fellowship and minister together in the unity of the Lord, what does that say to the world? That our God can not even bring peace among His own, why should we surrender and serve such a God.

The disciples in the Book of Acts would rightly have a just case to tell us “Shame on you for conforming to the world in this manner!

Even though this saddens me, I know it grieves the Spirit even more to look out across the American Church landscape and see how many Churches do turn the Church over to the trends of the youth, and do such for the sake of the large crowds that can be attracted and the income that can be generated. Our goal must be to love the Lord and His people. If we say we love the Lord but despise and segregate a segment of His church for selfish motives, something is wrong. Our commission is to build up the body of Christ, not a segment of it.

Now again, we must realize that we have the cynical critics out there who will make claims that this is impossible in today’s American culture. We are youth oriented, they will say, and that’s just the way it is. Yet the response of the Lord to this would be;,

My church is not to be fashioned according to the principles of the world. My holy bride is being shaped by My Holy Spirit, who has been sent forth to gather My people together under the banner of Love. Stop conforming yourselves to the way of America but be transformed by the power of My word, which cannot be compromised. Come together in Love and you will see fleshly distinctions dissipate and disappear. My kingdom is not of this world and those who would dwell in it must submit to its King and His ways. The god of this world has infused you with his divisive ways and you have bowed down to his disruptive tactics. It is time to come again to Me and submit to My ways

We must understand that the scriptures testify to the fact that the church is not a fleshly organization! It is a spiritual organism that is not governed by the rules of the flesh. When we try to let the church function by fleshly principles we make it into a man-made program instead of the body of Christ. No wonder we are failing to change the world but are being changed by the world. We have decided to operate by its rules instead of responding to the divine presence of our God.

I am going to step out and be bold here when I loudly make this claim to you now that I believe the Lord clearly points out in His Word that the end time church will not be a human organization governed by men and their ideas. It will be a divine expression of Christ Himself upon the earth. It will function by the Spirit and will roll over the fleshly façade of the enemy like a steam roller over a wicker basket.

We can either join the Spirit of God, as He continues to transform the Lords Bride into what the Father has desired it to be and it will encompass young and old, male and female, rich and poor, and every race of man. For, He did not die so that we could go our way and do our thing. He died to purchase us with His own blood and possess us for His will. We are not our own. We belong to Him.

Or we can stand in His way and be rolled over by His Holy will, left sitting with the world on the side lines.

But we must take a stand now and reject any doctrine that tries to come in and replace the doctrine of Jesus Christ. We must reject any other Gospel message save that of the Lord’s. We must make a stand upon the foundation of Gods Holy Word and not be moved by the trends of this world, nor by the emotions and dictates of any age group. God has given us His Word at a Great cost and we must never be moved from its foundation, Period.

We must not allow the wisdom of the worldly mind set and trends govern our meetings, our preaching nor ministry. We must be a people who are of, and who are operating in the culture of Gods Kingdom, as outlined in His Word and we must treat any opposing doctrine as a treasonous act and expel it at all cost, even if it means people leaving the Church and the Tithe basket shrink – For Our God is our support, from whom all blessings flow.

We can no longer allow the such insurrectionists movements that have
been secretly and seductively weaving its worldly teachings and formulas into the Body. They are of the devil and though masked as messages of light, they are spawn spirits of hell with a goal of removing the foundational principles of which our Lord and His apostles laid, as written in the Word.

We have seen such deception come in many ways, such as the past 20 years in regard to the trend of weaving in social justice programs and passing them off as part of the Gospel message of Jesus, yet with spiritual eyes open one can clearly discern them as having been motivated and fueled by liberal demands, again even though appear to be Biblical, with inject scriptural references and all. Such doctrines actually run contrary to the doctrines of the Kingdom of God and are not Biblically sound. Such teachings and trends must be exposed for what they are for they are nothing but poison, dressed as holy, yet not of the Lord.

This is why we must walk in spiritual unity with a mutual respect for the wisdom and discernment of both young and old.

Let us get back to holding Gods Word higher than the wisdom of this world, higher than the voice of reason. Let us return to holding Gods Word as sacred, Holy and true with a reverent fear of every Word found and let us turn the pulpits back to the same fear as well, for our God is not just any god, He is the Lord God.

No Mr. Satan, we will not move out of the way for any other gospel message – we are fully content and completely satisfied with the Gospel message of Jesus Christ as written in the Holy Word of God.